Concept design of robotic modules for needlescopic surgery

Abstract

Background: Many minimally invasive surgical procedures and assisting robotic systems have been developed to further minimize the number and size of incisions in the body surface. This paper presents a new idea combining the advantages of modular robotic surgery, single incision laparoscopic surgery and needlescopic surgery.

Material and methods: In the proposed concept, modules carrying therapeutic or diagnostic tools are inserted in the abdominal cavity from the navel as in single incision laparoscopic surgery and assembled to 3-mm needle shafts penetrating the abdominal wall.

Results: A three degree-of-freedom robotic module measuring 16 mm in diameter and 51 mm in length was designed and prototyped. The performance of the three connected robotic modules was evaluated.

Conclusion: A new idea of modular robotic surgery was proposed, and demonstrated by prototyping a 3-DOF robotic module. The performance of the connected robotic modules was evaluated, and the challenges and future work were summarized.

Keywords:

• Minimally invasive surgery
• needlescopic surgery
• robotic surgery

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr. K. Nakamura and K. Yanagimura of Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd. for their help.

Disclosure statement

The authors report that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 23760218.